DISCLAIMER: Open-water swimming is inherently dangerous. Open-water swimmers risk drowning, hypothermia, hyperthermia, heart attacks, panic attacks, cramping, jelly fish stings, fish bites, boat or jet-ski collisions, collisions with floating or submerged objects (including other swimmers), and other calamities that can be injurious, disabling or fatal! The "West Neck Pod" is an informal association of open-water swimmers who swim "outside the lines" with no lifeguard protection, it has no formal membership, organizational structure or legal identity, and its participants, including the author of this blog, make no representations and assume no liability with respect to its group open-water swims. All swimmers who participate in West Neck Pod group open-water swims do so at their own risk. Be careful out there!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Good Night, Irene...and Good Riddance!

Though not nearly as harmful and dangerous as was originally feared, Hurricane Irene's driving rains and fierce winds still delivered Long Island a serious whuppin' throughout the night and early morning, flooding the shoreline communities and making a Sunday morning swim completely out of the question....Unless, of course, you're Ken Longo, who sent out a series of increasingly frenzied e-mails this morning looking for other inmates -- I mean Pod members --  to swim with him.  Turns out he's not the only one who was itching to get to the Beach, and numerous other Pod members risked life and limb on their quest to get to West Neck, if only to take pictures!  Most of us (yes, of course I'm one of them!) have been thwarted, as West Neck Road has been closed all day due to flooding and numerous downed trees blocking the road.  My latest attempt was around 3:00 this afternoon, and the road was closed just beyond John Daves Lane as yet another tree had just fallen!  Lloyd Harbor police officer (and fellow swimmer) "Vinnie" confirmed, though, that the water had completely covered the Lloyd Neck causeway, and that West Neck Beach was completely underwater at the height of the storm.  Nancy Aboff (who lives in Lloyd Neck) just reported via e-mail that she finally made it down to West Neck Beach -- along with a bunch of windsurfers taking advantage of the white-capped surf in the Harbor!  That must be that "storm surge" the forecasters kept talking about....Hopefully Nancy will post some pictures of our favorite beach in the aftermath of Irene -- but in the meantime here are some others from those on the Quest, including Rob Ripp (who narrowly escaped being crushed by a falling tree as he was taking these pictures) and Liz Perlstein.  See you in the post-Irene Salt!

Huntington Harbor overflowing onto West Shore Road (Rob Ripp)

Boat dock at Gold Star Beach (Rob Ripp)

New York Avenue in Huntington (Liz Perlstein)

Boat dock in Cold Spring Harbor post-Irene

No comments:

Post a Comment